Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘Hold on,’ said Eddie in alarm, retreating until a jab from a soldier’s rifle brought him to a halt. ‘You’re bringing fucking plutonium in here?’

Mikkelsson smiled. ‘It is perfectly safe. Colonel, if I may?’ Kang nodded. The diplomat had a brief exchange in Korean with the senior technician, who then gave an order. The two men set down the case and opened it. Eddie tried to edge away, but the Icelander indicated the red box on the wall. ‘If the radiation readings were at even half a dangerous level, that alarm would have sounded.’

‘My sister thought that about her smoke alarm, until she burned some toast and it turned out the battery was flat,’ Eddie retorted.

‘I assure you, we are safe. If we were not, I would not do this.’ He reached into the case and — with effort — lifted out the sphere.

‘You can touch it?’ said Nina, both amazed and aghast.

‘I told you, it is pure plutonium-239. It produces almost no radiation; it is plutonium-240 that is dangerous. This emits only alpha particles, and they are so weak they cannot even penetrate the skin.’ He held it out to her. ‘Here. Touch it.’

She hesitated, but Kang and Bok’s expressions made her fear that refusal might not be a choice. Instead, she gingerly brushed the sphere with a fingertip — and involuntarily flinched back.

‘What is it?’ Eddie said, alarmed. ‘Is it electrified?’

‘No, it’s just… warm.’ She put her finger on it again. The metal felt hotter than body temperature, but not uncomfortably so. Nevertheless, she withdrew after only a few seconds.

‘You have had a rare privilege,’ Mikkelsson told her. ‘Few people have touched pure plutonium with their bare hands.’ He looked at Eddie. ‘And you?’

‘I’ll give it a miss, thanks,’ said Eddie firmly.

Mikkelsson shrugged, carefully returning the sphere to its case and closing the lid. The head technician spoke with the officers, then Bok used a walkie-talkie to issue a command to someone elsewhere in the base. ‘So now what?’ Nina asked as the other technicians began another series of checks and the two men who had brought the plutonium sphere up from the lower level headed back down the stairs.

‘Now, the particle accelerator is being readied to convert another sphere of uranium to plutonium,’ Mikkelsson said. ‘While this one,’ he gestured at the canister, ‘will be transported with the others, along with their warheads and missiles, to a launch facility at al-Sulayyil in Saudi Arabia.’ He crossed the room to the case Nina had brought. ‘As for the second Crucible, Colonel Kang agreed that we should let you bring it to North Korea, but I am wondering if I should buy it back. It does belong to the Legacy, after all. And soon it will be a great advantage to have our own gold factory. The markets always panic in times of instability and buy gold, raising the price.’

Kang frowned. ‘The Crucibles are ours.’

‘I am sure we can negotiate something to our mutual benefit. My gold will be too heavy to take it all in our jet. Perhaps some could be left with you for… safe keeping?’

Bok understood his meaning at once and grinned slyly; Kang took long enough to translate the suggestion that the guide began to do so for him before being curtly shouted down. ‘Yes. We can negotiate. For the good of North Korea,’ the colonel added, giving the translator a stern look of warning that he should never tell anyone else what he had heard. The man quailed.

Several more soldiers entered, led by the broad-jawed captain Kang had spoken to outside. He snapped to attention before his commanding officer, his team following suit. Kang acknowledged with a salute of his own, then reeled off commands. The captain responded smartly, his men loading the canister holding the plutonium on to a small cart, though with the same wary trepidation as Eddie.

‘How come they’re not juggling the thing about if it’s so safe?’ said the Englishman.

‘The dangers of a small amount of knowledge,’ the Icelander replied. ‘North Korea operates on the principle of need-to-know, and its soldiers do not need to know anything . They probably believe, like the uneducated in the West, that all nuclear materials are equally dangerous and instantly deadly. Captain Sek is responsible for delivering the plutonium and the warheads; all he needs to know is that if anything should go wrong, he is accountable.’

‘I guess they don’t need to know English either,’ said Nina. ‘Otherwise they’d wise up with us talking about it.’

‘It is not encouraged,’ said Bok with a smirk. ‘Not for the ordinary people.’

Kang gave more orders. The team wheeled the cart out of the control room. The particle accelerator started to build up power again, its noise rising. ‘Fenrir,’ said Sarah in a tone of pent-up frustration.

‘In a moment,’ Mikkelsson answered, turning to Kang.

‘No. Now .’ She rounded him to stand before Nina and Eddie. ‘Where’s Anastasia? What happened to her, where is she? Where’s my daughter?’ Frustration was replaced by desperation, her voice quavering.

Nina couldn’t help but feel a pang of empathy. ‘She’s… I’m sorry. She’s dead.’

Sarah’s expression froze as she struggled to take in the words. ‘What?’ barked De Klerx, his own shock holding back anger. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, she’s dead.’

‘She…’ Sarah’s face crumpled into anguish. ‘No, no, she… she can’t be. Not my girl, she…’ Behind her, Mikkelsson was unreadable, staring silently at the couple.

‘I’m sorry,’ Nina repeated.

De Klerx clenched his fists into tight, furious balls. ‘How did she die?’

‘She fell into the frozen lake.’

He shook his head. ‘No. No! She knew Iceland, she knew the lake. She would never have been that careless! What really happened?’ His eyes narrowed, fixing upon Eddie. ‘What did you do?’

‘Does it matter?’ Eddie asked, assessing the Dutchman’s mental state. He was close to snapping in sheer rage, meaning he might be provoked into doing something unwise…

‘Yes, it matters!’ De Klerx snarled. ‘Tell me! Tell me now!’

‘Remember that grenade launcher you had in Greece? I fired it into the ice underneath her. Boom.’ He mimed pulling a trigger, then raised his hand to blow smoke from an imaginary gun. ‘She went swimming with the elves.’ Sarah was shocked, Mikkelsson’s face still an emotionless mask — but De Klerx was now at the point of explosion.

‘Eddie…’ said Nina in surprised warning.

He pressed on, forcing a mocking smile. ‘Yeah, I killed her. What’re you gonna do about it, clog boy?’

Detonation. ‘I will kill you !’ De Klerx’s voice rose to a shriek as he launched himself at the Yorkshireman.

The attack caught the North Koreans by surprise, the soldiers hurriedly pulling back as De Klerx ploughed into Eddie. One brought up his gun, but Kang waved him down. A soldier hauled Nina away as Eddie fought back. The two brawling men lurched across the control room.

‘Rutger, stop!’ Sarah cried, but De Klerx ignored her as he drove a series of furious punches at the Englishman. Eddie blocked most of them, but a couple got through, making him stagger backwards. The soldiers moved to encircle the fight, turning the room’s centre into a ring. Some of the technicians left their stations to get clear, others watching in fascination.

‘ Ik zal je vermoorden! ’ De Klerx shrieked, sending another frenzied blow at his opponent. Eddie swept his forearm up to intercept it, then snapped a punch under the Dutchman’s guard to hit his mouth. De Klerx’s head jerked back. The taste of blood from his split lip enraged him even more — and he charged at the other man with an incoherent scream.